NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State volleyball team was fine for the first set and change Thursday night against defending Southland Conference regular-season and tournament champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Then Kristyn Nicholson found her groove from the service line. Nicholson, the Islanders' junior setter, rattled off five consecutive aces in a match-turning, second-set run, sending Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to a 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, 25-16) sweep of the Lady Demons at Prather Coliseum.
The loss snapped NSU's three-match win streak, which tied its season long.
"She's a great server, and she's very consistent with it," second-year head coach
Sean Kiracofe said. "When we scouted them, against Sam Houston specifically, she served another long run like that and hit four or five on the tape in a row. That's really hard to do. Once you get a few aces, then anything you do is good. There were a few she hit out, and we went to try to play them or we could have gotten out of that situation quicker."
After dropping a tight first set, Northwestern State (8-11, 3-1 Southland Conference) tied the second set at 7 on a
Lauren Agan kill. From there, Nicholson began a 9-0 surge for the Islanders (8-6, 3-0) with a kill.
From there, Nicholson dropped in five straight aces and six in a span of seven points, accounting for all of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's aces for the match.
The Lady Demons were unable to overcome Nicholson's service streak and a consistent Islanders offense that hit .340 for the match, including a .464 clip in the final set.
"They are unbelievably consistent," Kiracofe said. "We have played better offenses, faster offenses, specifically Arkansas State, but they are extremely consistent with what they do. We've talked about being aggressive when you can be and smart when you cannot all season. They are the epitome of that."
Alexis Warren led Northwestern State with a match-high 15 kills, hitting .297. Brittany Gilipn's 11 kills in 20 attacks paced Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Agan added nine kills while NSU managed six kills from the rest of its offense.
Northwestern State returns to action Saturday when it hosts Southland Conference foe Incarnate Word at 1 p.m. in Prather Coliseum.
